Every TV company is spying on you, not just LG. Like other tech companies, they collect lots of information, and while some is necessary for products to work, not all of it is — and could include details you’d prefer to keep private.
Many customers are concerned about how TVs and streaming devices might be spying: listening to what you say, taking screenshots of everything you watch, storing sensitive information on your TV, and sharing your data with the cloud. To find out what TV and streaming device companies are doing, I decided to ask every one to explain itself.
I put together 17 yes-or-no questions, like “Do your TVs store any recorded audio, or transcripts based on audio, captured in the home?” so that companies couldn’t just link to a confusing and legalese-ridden privacy policy.
TV users deserve to know the answers. --- Company representatives providing responses Amazon: Eric Sveum, PR manager Apple: Emily Ewing, public relations manager Google: Alex García-Kummert, spokesperson LG Electronics: Chris De Maria, director of public relations Roku: Sarah Novatt, spokesperson Samsung: Frank Giancamilli, corporate communications senior manager TCL: Rob Manfredo, head of communications and events
--- One month ago, I invited 11 companies, including Amazon, Apple, Google, Hisense, LG, Panasonic, Roku, Samsung, Sony, TCL, and Walmart’s Vizio to share those answers.
We now have answers from the top three TV manufacturers as well as every major streaming device company. Some companies declined to answer. Below, you can see and compare how each company answered (or failed to answer) each question and then decide how you feel. (One company, Hisense, ignored our emails entirely.) As you’ll see them say, some of this data collection is opt-in, and you can often opt out.
We know that many TVs use automatic content recognition (ACR) to figure out potentially everything we’re watching, and use that information to tailor ads, gather audience metrics, and serve up content recommendations based on our viewing habits. But though it sometimes seems like it’s required during the cavalcade of agreements thrown at us during setup, you can generally stop ACR even after you’ve agreed to it.
Opting out might not be as effective as it should be, however. A recent Northeastern University study found that Walmart’s Vizio kept on sending data after an opt-out (Vizio told me it was “routine operational data used to support the Vizio experience,” not ACR), while traffic with both Samsung and Roku was limited, but not stopped completely. Below are the answers to our 17 questions.
You will notice that some companies would not answer yes or no. We’ve also noted where companies declined to answer at all or ignored the questions. If any company becomes willing to directly answer our questions, we’ll add their responses. 1. Do your TVs ever use their embedded microphones, or the microphones in their remotes, to listen to sound in a customer’s home? Amazon: > No.
Fire TV includes voice functionality to help customers use their devices and get to content they love and fast, not to surveil homes. The microphones on our voice remotes are designed to only work when the mic button on the remote is physically pressed. And TVs with hands-free Alexa are designed to detect the wake word (and only the wake word) before connecting to Alexa.
No audio is stored or sent to the cloud unless the device detects the wake word. Customers can also turn off the microphones at any time…
